What are the Best Practices in EMR Management?

Managing a medical practice on your own can become quite challenging. Because of this, the healthcare industry invests in EMR systems to help them simplify and streamline their processes and business operations. This article will discuss some of the best practices that you can employ in your EMR management.

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What is EMR Management?

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is software that allows medical professionals to record, store, and organize patient records and information. EMRs provide a streamlined and automated system that helps healthcare workers manage patient information and work operations efficiently. Thus, proper EMR management would ensure that healthcare staff gives the correct treatments, procedures, or prescriptions to the right patient. It would also guarantee that both doctors and their patients know their respective schedules and appointments will occur.

7 Best Practices in Efficient EMR Management

Medical practitioners and other healthcare workers input patient information and other related data into an EMR system. Because of this, the one managing it must have a keen eye for details. Here are some of the things that you should keep in mind when it comes to EMR management.

Ensure Access Security

EMR systems deal with patient information and other confidential data and, thus, should be compliant with data privacy requirements. Thus, it would be best if you were careful about who gets access to this information. You do not know what could happen if you provide access to the wrong person. Your medical practice could face a lawsuit from an angry customer whose confidential information got leaked. As such, you should monitor and restrict access to both your computers and your EMR software. Your EMR software should know to ask for a personal ID and a password from those who wish to log in to the system. Installing security access would guarantee that only those who have the credentials can access the system.

Consistency is Key

In EMR management, you and your staff should be consistent in inputting and storing data and information. First of all, make sure that you use the same medical terms, keywords, and terminologies. In doing so, you avoid confusion, especially when making diagnoses and giving out prescriptions and medications to your patients. You do not want to label a patient with the wrong medical condition and undergo the incorrect medical procedure because of the inconsistencies you found in the data collected. Thus, you and your healthcare staff should know how to label and provide descriptions in your EMR system.

Backup Your Information

Electronic medical records are digitized. As such, it should be part of your routine to perform regular backups. Doing so would ensure that patient information and other relevant data in your EMR system are up to date. Backups also guarantee that your data would not get lost in case your electronic device crashes. Thus, make sure that your IT department or a third-party company does a continuous backup of your data. Fortunately, you can perform the backup process yourself using a cloud-based EMR management system such as the PxTrack Patient Tracking software.

Healthcare Staff Training

Medical professionals and their healthcare staff should undergo training to make sure they know how to manage their EMR software. For efficiency, you can appoint a few employees to be experts on the EMR system. These selected individuals will be assigned to train the rest of the staff on a day-to-day basis. They will answer the questions and concerns of the team with regards to the EMR system. In doing so, you will not give the rest of your healthcare staff the unnecessary burden of learning all of the system’s complexities. They will only have to learn to handle the parts of the system that they will need to execute their job efficiently.

Keep IT Staff on Standby

No one can point out exactly when an electronic system may fail or face problems. Thus, it would be best to have your IT staff on standby if these unfortunate circumstances occur. Your IT staff should know how to perform routine checkups on your EMR system. They should also know how to do data backups, anti-virus sweeps and keep track of and fix errors and other technical issues that may surface. When you have at least one capable IT staff on standby, you guarantee that you can resolve any technical errors in your medical practice.

Use Anti-Virus

In the Philippines, the Republic Act 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 protects patient records and information. Therefore, medical practitioners should ensure that the information they collect from their patients is kept confidential and secure. As such, you must protect your EMR system from hackers, malware, and other malicious entities. Once these individuals access your information, they may use it for their selfish gains, which could cost you your business and your reputation as a medical practitioner. Therefore, you or your IT department must install anti-virus and a malware sweeper to make regular checks to keep your system free from risks and other vulnerabilities.

Evaluate EMR Implementation

Installing and implementing an EMR system into your medical practice should not be the end of the line. You cannot ensure that everything would work according to plan. Thus, it would be best if you kept your eye open to other problems and concerns that may come along the way. During these times, you should look at how the EMR system holds and reacts. Then, take note of your observations and look for possible solutions that would help improve the implementation of your EMR system.

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EMR Management is Better with PxTrack

Keep these EMR management system best practices in mind so that you can keep your facility and healthcare staff working efficiently. Try out PxTrack Patient Tracking, an?electronic medical records?software that can streamline and automate your medical practice!